Yusuf Shirazi: an entrepreneur par excellence

Yusuf Hussain Shirazi is no more and Pakistan's business world is so much the poorer with the loss of one of its leading lights. Born into a farming family of Sahiwal (formerly Montgomery in Punjab), Shirazi had no penchant for agriculture and chose the Civil Service as vocation after completion of his education from the famous Foreman Christian College of Lahore and the Punjab University. He served in the Pakistan Taxation Service for eight years. Thereafter, he turned his attention to becoming an entrepreneur. The transition from bureaucracy to business was not without hiccups; he had only half a million rupees in capital with which he established Shirazi Investments Limited. His close friend Mian Muhammad Yahya was a source of great help in the initial stages of his business endeavours who made him a director in his Nishat Industries that is now managed by his son Mian Muhammad Mansha.

Shirazi set up a motorcycle assembly unit in erstwhile East Pakistan and subsequently established another assembling plant to manufacture Honda motorbikes in Karachi. With sheer hard work and perseverance, he grew his businesses at a steady pace in allied fields of automobile engineering with shares of most of his listed companies becoming blue chips in the stock market. Shirazi was widely known for his frequent engagements at intellectual levels, expressing his strong and often divergent views on topics ranging from free market to protectionism, and from industrialization to international lending agencies.

It was his dynamism and strong progressive outlook that earned his hitherto rare honour of continuing as President of Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry for another term after he had completed his term. To further broaden his horizons he often attended courses offered by the Harvard Business School and the Harvard University. He was credited with establishing the Harvard Club of Pakistan and the Harvard Business Club of Pakistan. He was an avid art collector and an author of seven books and innumerable articles in newspapers and journals. He would always be remembered for his entrepreneurial creativity which was about coming up with innovative ideas and turning them into value-creating profitable business activities.